Teacher well-being and organizational citizenship behavior in Arab educational system in Israel: The implications of teacher collective involvement in decision making and organizational commitment.

Abstract

A gradual transition from a collectivist to a more individualist identity has been noted in the Arab minority with implications for teachers' well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. This study builds on the Job Demands-Control model to investigate the mediating role of teacher organizational commitment in the relationship between the teacher collective involvement in decision making to teacher well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. Data were collected from a sample of 350 teachers randomly chosen in the Arab educational system in Israel. Structural equation modeling (using the AMOS 21.0 program) was used to test the proposed relationships. The results indicate both a direct and indirect relationships (through the mediating role of teacher organizational commitment) of teacher collective involvement in decision making on teachers' well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. The model which tested both direct and indirect relationships (through organizational commitment) between collective involvement in decision making and teachers' organizational citizenship behavior, and well-being, showed good fit indices (χ 2 = 62.60; χ 2 /df = 2.50; CFI = .947, TLI = .905, IFI = .949; RMSEA = .066). Specifically, the bootstrapping analysis reaffirmed the mediating role of organizational commitment between collective involvement in decision making and well-being (β = −.04, p < .001) and organizational citizenship behavior (β = .11, p < .001). Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Impact and ImplicationsThe study investigated the relationship between collective involvement in decision making and teachers' behaviors. The findings highlight the need to identify and expand teachers' resources such as collective involvement in decision making in both collectivistic and individualistic societies. They can also inform practitioners and policymakers regarding the design of programs and workshops to promote teachers' involvement in decision making.